The Coin Ceremony is an event which takes place at the keel laying, in the early stages of a ship's construction. In it, the shipbuilders place one or two coins under the keelblock of the new ship to bless the ship and as a symbol of good fortune. The coins are not normally fixed in place and are often retrieved when the ship sails out of the dry-dock, (although they are sometimes welded to the keel).
The Mast Stepping ceremony is a similar event which occurs towards the end of a ship's construction, and involves the placing of coins underneath the mast of a ship. In shipbuilding today, the coins are normally welded beneath the radar mast.
Famous quotes containing the words coin and/or ceremony:
“The moral equalizes all; enriches, empowers all. It is the coin which buys all, and which all find in their pocket. Under the whip of the driver, the slave shall feel his equality with saints and heroes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are nothing but ceremony; ceremony carries us away, and we leave the substance of things; we hang on to the branches and abandon the trunk and body.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)